Philadelphia International Airport Main Cause of Delayed Flights

Filed in archive Aviation Travel on November 23, 2007

Were you delayed this holiday season? Angry about it? You now have something to blame for that delayed flight. Philadelphia International Airport.

According to the Federal Aviation Adminstration, Philadelphia's International Airport is the cause for delays on the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. Also, blame the airport's design, heavy traffic, and bad weather. Only 68 percent of flights leaving Philadelphia were on time.

"If you wanted to show an airport that shows the opposite of what efficient is, Philly would be the poster child," said Don Chapman, local president of the National Air Traffic Controllers union.

The FAA has deemed Philadelphia a "pacing" airport that, because it sits in the middle of the busy East Coast air corridor, causes delays nationwide. It is debating how to improve the airport, which last year ranked 16th in the nation by passenger volume, but is consistently near the bottom of the 32 largest airports in on-time performance.

"It seems like if somebody sneezes in Harrisburg, we've got delays in Philadelphia," said Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for US Airways, the airport's dominant carrier.

There is little hope of major relief for this year's holiday travelers. Rain and fog on Monday and Tuesday caused delays leading up to the Thanksgiving rush.

Airport officials are working on extending one runway to accommodate bigger planes. That project, slated for completion by the end of next year, is expected to help ease delays somewhat.

The FAA is considering three options for a major airport redesign aimed at realigning runways to allow more planes to take off at once. Construction would take 10 to 15 years and would not start until 2010 at the earliest, at an estimated cost of between $5 billion to $6 billion.

Meanwhile, the search for more immediate solutions has created an uproar.